The Name on the Dotted Line

This is posted on the White House’s We the People website, which allows we the people to create polls and collect signatures to show support or opposition to various things involving the federal government:

This petition is a response to the "End taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear reactors" petition.

Due to the manufactured controversy that is the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, perpetuated by a scientifically illiterate news media, the public is unnecessarily hostile to nuclear power as an energy source.

To date nobody has died from the accident and Fukushima, and nuclear power has the lowest per Terra-watt hour death toll of any energy source known to man:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html

The Obama administration should take better strides to educate the public regarding this important energy source.

I’m not sure I agree with the much of the language here or even agree that the Obama administration has done a crummy job making the point that nuclear energy is key to the U.S. energy future. Poll numbers on nuclear energy took a hit after the Fukushima accident, certainly, but have largely recovered.

But that’s not the point, is it? You can decide for yourself if you think the petition is worth your signature. After all, if you want to create an alternate petition for others to sign, you can. 

You have to sign up for a free account on the site to sign the petition – and any number of others that are there – or create your own. The Next Big Future site describes itself as covering “science and technology having high potential for disruption and analysis of plans, policies and technology to enable radical improvements.” I assume it means radical improvements to our lives – in any event, a review of its posts show that it isn’t hauling a lot of ideological freight and covers a large number of topics.

As the poll description above indicates, the site is pugnaciously in favor of nuclear energy and participates in the Carnival of Nuclear Energy NNN hosted this week. Other than that, NEI has no affiliation with The Next Big Future, though it’s always nice to spotlight one of our blog roll friends.

If you want to know about the poll to which this one is a response, well, you’re on your own, buster.

The picture comes from a Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour event in North Carolina. I have no brief on the group – nice photo, though.